Eco Women: Protectors of the Planet!

The other day Enviro-Girl looked for chocolate syrup at the grocery store and in a fit of insanity began to read the labels–the 1st ingredient in all chocolate syrup?  High fructose corn syrup.  This got Enviro-Girl to thinking:  is this better or worse for her/her children/the planet than sugar?  Deciding for the moment that sugar was a more acceptable ingredient, she searched high and low and ended up purchasing a small jar of private-label hot fudge sauce for ice cream toppings.

But the questions niggled at her:  sugar or corn syrup?

Corn syrup dominates the market these days, and there’s even an ad campaign extolling it’s goodness.

But corn is the most heavily subsidized crop in America! In 2006 corn subsidies totaled $4,920,813, 719.00

Corn uses more fertilizers and petroleum and sucks more nutrients out of the soil than sugar cane ever has.  Corn has destroyed millions of acres of formerly biodiverse habitats–rendering them wastelands of weeds (which have kept pace in evolving with every new concoction of Round Up Monsanto can conceive).  Sugar cane is a more selective crop, unable to grow just anywhere.  And while sugar cane plantations have doubtlessly taken over huge swaths of subtropical turf, it hasn’t redefined the planet in the same way corn has, though it has left it’s indelible impact on the environment.  Food manufacturers LOVE using corn syrup because it’s cheaper and has a longer shelf life.  Sure, it’s cheaper–perhaps because it’s tax subsidized?

Sugar is…well, it’s sugar.  Corn syrup is a sweetener derived from chemically processing a starch.  And corn has almost NO nutritional value as a food to start with.  Well, neither does sugar, for that matter, but let’s not kid ourselves.  Sugar is more natural.  And more expensive.  And our bodies process sugar and corn syrup differently.

According to The Good Human, corn syrup has carbonyl compounds that can cause diabetic complications and other problems.  According to nutritionists, corn syrup does not store itself like fat in the body (unlike sugar) and it supresses your brain’s “full” instinct so you consequently eat more food with corn syrup in it.    And most people eat and drink corn syrup believing it’s a healthy choice because when nutrition labels calculate corn syrup and sugar like this:

At the end of the her research, Enviro-Girl concluded this: neither sugar nor corn syrup are healthy for her body, but corn syrup is worse when factoring in environmental impacts. She’s vowed to reduce her family’s consumption of BOTH sweeteners, opting for the sugar option over the corn syrup option when it’s available.